2 Reviews

1/5

Josh Johnson 10th Feb 2018

PETZL'S WORST PRODUCT... MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT

Too bad there is not an option for 0 stars.
This is a long review, but worth the read. Especially if you value life and money.
I have put off writing this review for some time, because I love abc, but I came across this product while scrolling through their website and all the terrible feelings came rushing back. If I didn't write this review, I feel I would be doing a discredit to any person who buys this product and goes through the same ordeal.
I have gone through 4 of these ($1,000+) and they didn't even last us half of our cleaning season. You might ask, why would you keep buying them if they didn't work? Great question. We bought two and they starting acting up, so we were instructed to get ahold of Petzl and go through their warranty process. We were assured that they were supposed to last much longer and Petzl would stand behind their products. In the meantime, we needed to keep working so we bought two more, paid overnight shipping, confident Petzl would send us two new products that we could use as a couple backups. I mean, we hadn't even used them for more than a couple of months...
What is worse, is we have found them to be incredibly unsafe, and all of our guys refuse to use them. Experienced climbers/wind turbine techs, not afraid of heights, refusing to use a pice of equipment because it instills FEAR in them.... that says something.
What happens is you'll be descending and randomly and the device starts slipping and and easing off the handle doesn't slow you down. By slipping, I really mean OUT OF CONTROL DESCENDING, so you have to literally move the handle into the lock off position to slow yourself down, eventually hoping (and praying) you'll come to a stop.
*As a side note, this is something Petzl warranty dept. says is a horrible thing to do to the device and could be the reason it is not working properly.... No, that is why we were forced to do it, because the device was MALFUNCTIONING!!
There have been times we were about 2 stories off the ground and the thing failed and we went crashing into the ground. Obviously there is some sort of friction with the rope running through the device... apparently just enough to keep the ASAP (rope grab) from engaging. Most certainly not a pleasurable experience to say the least.
Common knowledge states that if your MAIN DEVICE has failed, and you are relying solely on your backup, there is no longer redundancy and you are now only supported by one line. It is also demoralizing to know that after your main Petzl product has failed (ID/Rig) you are relying on another one of Petzl's fine products as a last resort, to catch you before falling to your death. By this, I am referring to the ASAP.
Like mentioned, we got ahold of Petzl warranty dept. and long story short, after reviewing the devices, they said their warranty didn't cover normal wear and tear. They say that the steel on the cam had worn past the wear indicator.... Really? Do you make your steel out of 50% butter? As opposed to the chocolatiers philosophy, where creamier is better, Petzl is supposed to be making hardened steel! Honestly, swear on my life we hadn't used them more than a couple of months! I was told that if I invested in these, they would last YEARS!
The next two, I hoped would last longer... not the case. Our guys instructed me the two BRAND NEW DEVICES that we bought to replace the garbage, were doing the same thing. Upon our own inspection, they had passed the wear indicator, again after only a couple of months. Halfway through our work year, we ended up buying good old racks and haven't had a problem since.
See the thing is, when these worked, I LOVED them! The entire thing is a stoke of genius. Their one and MAJOR flaw is the steel cam, the heart of the device. The steel wears down much to quickly.
I loved all the safety features, it has so much redundancy and you felt so safe. Until of course that feeling of safety was violated after putting your full trust in this piece of equipment and having it let you down.
Not only can we not afford to use these devices... $1,000 over 4 months = $250/month for one piece of equipment (no... not a vehicle). We really can't afford to have our guys NOT TRUST the equipment they are using. We need our guys to have CONFIDENCE in their gear so they can work and not worry.
We also can't afford the Workers Comp claim when our guys come crashing into the ground and hurt themselves, sending our insurance premiums through he roof.
In full transparency, we were not using brand new ropes. We use our ropes to work, so naturally they get dirty. This might contribute to the cam wearing out faster, but still. Petzl needs to design a product that takes these elements into account because as it turns out, guys don't store their ropes in glass cases and only handle them with a white glove.
Also, maybe Petzl as a company is not bad and would stand behind their products. Maybe they value safety? Maybe they just employed a terrible individual that happened to be over our local warranty dept. that told us it was our fault that the devices broke. Maybe it was just this one employee who tried to tell us we were the reason they made a terrible product and that because we didn't know how to use them it was our fault.
Really, anyone should look at it like: you know, your receipt was from two months ago and you have passed the wear indicator, let me get that replaced for you. Common sense says that it should last longer. (i.e. buys a car, 5,000 miles later engine goes out... sorry, looks like normal wear)
Until Petzl redesigns the ID and Rig, it is a major NO GO.
My recommendation: Buy ANYTHING else besides the Petzl ID or Rig.

3/5

Appearances Window Cleaning of Tidewater18th Sep 2015

Might need to get familiar with it, good for quick over and right back up

I'm used to the 5 or 6 finger ladder rack. I can unwrap the rope and descend with one hand, of course very gradual or fast. With this descender, you HAVE to use your second hand to help control the descent with the free end of the rope being fed into the device. You can use just one hand to pull the lever but it is very jerky, meaning you're pulling on the lever very gradual waiting to descend and all of a sudden you shoot down 4-8 inches, of course you bring the lever back and come to an abrupt stop. It's like this all the way down unless you use a second hand to guide the free rope- Which I need my second hand to bring my safety down with me.
I had to go down about 3 or 4 feet on a few drops just to grab something and was able to get the free end of the rope into a buddy's hand above me on the roof, he is able to pull up and bring me right up, reverse lock on rope, pretty cool, would have to see, hard to explain.